***Remember that FIFA is putting up highlight videos of each match on their site shortly after the conclusion of each match. If they first one is any indication, they are great: high quality, no announcers, just the highlights and stadium noise. Go here, then scroll down a bit and in the Germany 2006 Highlights section click on "see all the highlights here". Enjoy.

Might as well get a prediction down so I can look back at how stupid I was.

Spain beats Argentina in the final.

My final 16 is way too chalky, like an NCAA braket with too many high seeds and not enough upsets. Anyways, here is who I have going through:

That would be even better. Henry just popped in my head since he was the object of his affection.

By the way, do you know what {expeletive} was specifically? All I ever read was {expletive}, I assume it was the Spanish equivalent of shit or fuck.

Aragones approached Spain striker Jose Antonio Reyes, who like Henry plays for English club Arsenal, at Las Rozas and shouted in his face: "Some players have to see things more clearly."Tell that black [expletive] that you are better than him. Tell him from me. You're the best."

Your point of view on why Spain cannot get it all together do to the amount of regional division in the country is correct. Talent wise I also have to agree with how filthy rich Spain is and they just need something to rally around. Just finished reading your overviews they are pretty much correct even with Brazil's suspect defense they are the team to beat but my lack of money is going to be on Argentina or Spain. Well it now time for Poland-Ecaudor.

I think Spain can beat Brasil with Reyes and Torres running Cafu and Carlos ragged. I also agree with LD that since many of the Brasilians play in La Liga, Spain will not be as intimidated by them, and familiarity will only help them.

And I think this kind of.. well.. sheds some more light onto the situation. Aragones was just being the crude and rude man that he is. The "Me cago en su puta madre" phrase is apparently a common phrase in Spanish, so he was just throwing a tantrum of sorts, on the sideline, at Reyes for being competely outplayed by Henry. I think he just threw in that "black" adjective in there at the heat of the moment. Was it wrong? Yeah, of course. Fireable? Definitely. But it's not terrible indicative of some latent racism on the man himself. He made it worse by refusing to apologize and accusing the English press of over-reacting though. I think to him, he basically just said: "tell that shit you are better than him".

That said, the culture in Spain is very insensitive when it comes to these things, much much less so than here in America (or England). I'm sure you know about the "monkey" chants. But it's not just that. Like the examples about Guti, Paul Gasol, and Becks in the article. Giving someone stereotypical black qualities isn't considered offensive, neither is the notion of blackfaced white people. The whole culture is behind the times in this matter. Keep in mind though, there has never been a huge population of black in Spanish history (they weren't in the importing slaves business, unlike *ahem* us; nor did they have colonies in Africa like Britain or France).

So I can't really say that Aragones is a huge racist. Just an ignoramous.

More from Aragones, and it looks like he is not alone - commetns fromthe Ukraine manager below his:

Although many of the stars of almost every domestic league from Russia westward are from the African Diaspora (which includes Brazil), an astonishing level of racism persists among fans and even coaches at the highest levels of the game. Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin, for example, bemoaned the globalization of his domestic league thus: "The more Ukrainians there are playing in the national league, the more examples there are for the young generation. Let them learn from [our players] and not some zumba-bumba whom they took off a tree, gave two bananas and now he plays in the Ukrainian league.''

Then there was the Spanish team's coach, Luis Aragones, caught on TV telling striker Jose Antonio Reyes that he was better than his French Arsenal teammate Thierry Henry. Except Aragones didn't say Henry's name, he said, "that black shit." A few days later, he insisted that there was nothing racist about the remark: "Reyes is ethnically a gypsy," said Aragones. "I have got a lot of gypsy and black friends. All I did was to motivate the gypsy by telling him he was better than the black."

Thanks anon. Nope I didn't place any bets; if only there was a Ladbrokes or William Hill on every corner here like there is in London...

Alot of my picks were favorites, it really is just a case of me going 3 for 4 on my 4 against the grain picks, with Ecuador, Ghana, and Australia getting it done (Iran did not), as well as not going with some other trendy cinderellas (Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro, USA, South Korea).

Probably more a case of my picks getting lucky and making me look smarter than I am.

On the other hand, If Spain and Brasil get through and Spain beat them in the quarters, then I'll have something to crow about.

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